The present invention relates to electric lamps and in particular to a combination trouble lamp and emergency flasher adapted for direct connection to the battery of a vehicle.
A wide variety of trouble lamps and auxiliary emergency flashers are known. In the case of trouble lamps, they are customarily used for making repairs on a vehicle either during daylight hours or at night and customarily have a reflective shade, protective cage, and a hook for hanging the lamp from a convenient location on the vehicle. One such lamp which is presently commercially available is made of a plastic material and has a reflective shade which is translucent and the light produced by the bulb is visible therethrough at night. The lamp has a power cord and terminates in a standard two prong plug adapted for connection to 110 volt AC current.
Another class of prior art devices include adaptors for insertion into the cigarette lighter socket located on the vehicle dashboard. This necessitates that the power cord for the trouble lamp or warning blinker be run through an open window or door which is often inconvenient when working under the vehicle hood. Furthermore, these devices will not accomodate jumper cables for the purpose of starting a disabled vehicle and the power cord is generally not sufficiently heavy to accomodate the large current flow which is required.
One prior art device, which is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,932,018, is an electric lamp having a clear lens and a colored lens positioned on opposite sides of the light bulb and and a selectively switched flasher which causes the bulb to blink on and off. No reflective shade is provided, however, so the amount of light which is available for making repairs and the like is reduced.
Another prior art device is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,439,159 and has an extension ring made of a transparent red material which extends forward of the clear lens so that when the unit is viewed from the side, the emitted light will appear red in color.